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From Candyland to Chess: Failing Games to Build Resilience
I'm just gonna say it: Candyland is a boring game. Candyland art by Midjourney I’ve played this game dozens - maybe hundreds - of times with my own children. We don’t play it anymore, because now that they are older, they agree that it is boring to play. But when they were young, this game was great for toddlers who were just learning how to play board games, and how to fail gracefully. The rules are simple [...]
New WordPress design and Mighty Network community
Rebecca Houghton wanted to position her community as the premium resource for B-Suite Leaders - the modern middle manager. But her website was built on WordPress.com (not .org), her team had a hard time making it work, and there was not enough technical aptitude to create a membership experience that was smooth and easy. The business couldn’t get any bigger because of capacity constraints, so they could not sell more, grow, or scale within their existing systems. BoldHR® contracted Stellar Platforms to undertake [...]
Play with your work, especially if it’s boring.
Ever since I ran away and joined the circus (true story!) I’ve always seen my work as a form of play. The harder the work, the harder I have to play to get through it. I learned this from the Seven Dwarves. They worked all day in the mines, and they didn’t grumble and complain (except for Grumpy, of course, but he was just staying in character). They used a simple technique that I have found very valuable: Whistle [...]
Plan your priorities so they don’t plan you
The first three hours of my day are rigidly scripted. I find that having a choreographed morning routine removes my ability to make bad decisions about how my day starts. (My morning routine changes as my life and circumstances change, so what I do today is not the same as what I did ten years ago.) I often wake before my 6 am alarm. I spend that time listening to guided meditations, rather than doomscrolling on my phone, because I known [...]
The Accountability Formula – Wins, Challenges, and Commitments
90% of the world’s drops are done by jugglers. Whatever you juggle - balls, fruit, chainsaws, or family schedules - you are statistically more likely to drop what you juggle than the people who never throw anything. Dropping the ball is part of how we learn. The placement of the drop - way off to the side, or too far forward to reach - is the very thing that gives you a clue about how you can throw better. This [...]
The Urgent vs the Important: How to Prioritize Your Time
As the military general in charge of US operations in Europe during World War II, Dwight Eisenhower had many difficult days. He had to handle shifting priorities in complex, uncertain situations. His leadership was characterized by a keen understanding of the difference between urgency and importance. “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important,” he used to say. Sometimes they overlapped, which made four types of priorities, classified in a 2x2 grid that has become [...]